Old Magnificent Bastard thread
Welcome to the Magnificent Bastard proposal thread! This is the thread where new Magnificent Bastard examples are vetted, approved, and written up. If you're looking for the general cleanup thread (for cuts, rewrites, expansions, and the like), please go here
Important: Before suggesting any new examples, please read the Frequently Asked Questions and Common Requests List; if you have any questions, the odds are high they are answered there. Additionally, please check here for the earliest date a work can be discussed (usually two weeks from the U.S. release date) and whether the work has already been reserved by another user.
Here is how the process works:
- If you have a candidate to propose, you can simply come right in and propose them! If the character's run is brief, such as a single issue of a comic book, then a simple summary of their actions and any potential mitigating features will be enough; for longer-running candidates, an effortpost (EP) might be helpful for organizing the proposal. An EP is not outright required, but please be mindful that if a post becomes too clunky and unorganized, it can be very hard for other people to follow.
- After the proposal, there will be a 72-hour discussion and voting period, where people may ask questions and vote on the candidate. The number of upvotes must outnumber the downvotes by at least five for the character to be considered "approved".
- Three days after the proposal has been made, if the character has been approved, you may post the writeup (the text to be posted on the trope page itself) on the thread and send it to the drafts page. Your candidate will soon be added to the MB subpage. If the work has a page, you should add your candidate to the relevant YMMV page. Voila! It's that simple!
Outside of this process, we do have a few ground rules:
- To keep the thread moving at a reasonable pace, there are some restrictions on when a proposal can be made. There should only be a maximum of four EPs posted both per page and per hour to ensure that nothing gets lost in the shuffle; additionally, each individual troper should only be proposing or writing up characters from a maximum of three works at a time (from initial proposals to end of their voting period). If your proposal would fall outside of either of these guidelines, we'd like to ask you to please wait until they would fit within; feel free to type them up on an outside document, and then when the time comes, you can just copy, paste, and post!
- No plagiarism of any kind. This is a very serious matter site-wide, as the website could get in actual legal trouble over this; as a result, this can very quickly lead to mod intervention. This can take many different forms:
- Direct plagiarism, i.e. wholesale copying. This is not only the easiest to find, but is also the most likely to warrant quick moderator intervention. To be clear, quoting in some places is perfectly acceptable, but it has to be very clear you're quoting from something else and it cannot be anything longer than a sentence or two - if you're quoting an entire work summary from Wikipedia, no one is going to believe you've actually consumed the work, so even if you cite your source, your candidate will be downvoted anyway.
- Self-plagiarism. Even if you can prove that you wrote the same text in both places, the site itself can't contain any of the duplicated text. If you already wrote something once before, it's not too hard to write it a second time.
- Using another site's work as a template for a proposal. Just because you don't copy and paste something directly doesn't mean it's any harder to detect if you're basing parts or all of your proposal on text someone else wrote. To be clear, this doesn't violate site rules and won't lead to mod intervention, but just like if you directly plagiarize, no one will believe you've consumed the work if you're clearly basing your proposal on something else. This thread largely operates on the honor system, and tweaking someone else's work to pass it off as your own is one of the fastest ways to lose trust.
- Votes must be for specific candidates, meaning no blanket voting (i.e. "yes to everyone I missed").
- If you are the first person to downvote a candidate, please provide an explanation of why when you do so. We're here for discussions above all, and a hit-and-run downvote doesn't facilitate anything.
- If a work is already reserved by another user, please don't comment on the work or any potential characters worth discussion before the discussion date. We know how exciting it is when a work has a keeper that you're waiting to talk about, but it's not fair to the person who reserved the work who is just as excited to lead the discussion to see the discussion getting spoiled before they get to do it. On the other hand, if the reservation only has one name attached, shoot them a PM - they may be down for a collaboration, which will get you in on the fun as well!
- Please keep the thread on-topic. While discussing the trope is fun and we encourage people to enjoy it, questions like "who's your favorite MB" are off-topic and can lead to thumps. That's the kind of question to take to people's PMs if they're willing. Similarly, while we encourage friendliness and familiarity with other users, posts should always have some kind of thread-relevant purpose; for instance, if you want to wish someone a happy birthday, feel free to, but if it's the only thing in the post, it's off-topic and needs something else alongside it. Again, though, while we strive for a friendly atmosphere, this is not Facebook; life updates are fun, but unless they have some kind of impact on your thread participation, please do not bring it here - we have Yack Fest for that.
- Please refrain from asking anything along the lines of "How Did We Miss This One?" In almost every case, the answer is simply "No one thought about it before". This Is a Wiki where everyone has different interests, and the fact that people missed a particular candidate, even one that seems like a textbook example of a trope or a character who is particularly iconic in pop culture, means absolutely nothing. The question is disruptive, has a simple and consistent answer, and provides nothing to any discussion.
- If you are suspended from other parts of the website, it is still possible to participate!
- For users who are suspended from editing the wiki, you still have full access to this thread. You can propose candidates and write them up with no issues whatsoever; while you will have to ask someone else to post the entry to the relevant pages once it is done, all write-ups are considered thread-approved - as in, done by consensus - and thus doing so does not violate any rules regarding meatpuppeting.
- If you are suspended from the forums, your participation is limited but not impossible. It is still possible for a forum-suspended user to assist in creating the write-up for a character who has already been approved; as previously mentioned, write-ups are inherently considered a consensus-based edit and thus not tied to any one particular user. However, you can not assist in the proposal of a character; as a proposal is based around the forum rather than the wiki, doing so with a forum suspension qualifies as meatpuppeting.
- Please keep all discussions "in-house".
- What other wikis use for MB equivalents is irrelevant here.
- Please be wary of using other wikis, Fandom or otherwise, as sources of information. They are just as fallible as a site like Wikipedia in regards to accuracy because they can be edited by any user, just as this site can.
- Do not attempt to force a communication with an author in an attempt to gather evidence or settle a debate; besides the fact that this is a YMMV trope and thus author intent has variable weight depending on the circumstance, doing so may cross the line into drama exportation, which is prohibited site-wide.
If you would like to use an EP for your candidate, here's the general format. This format does not have to be followed exactly, but these are the main topics that need to be covered:
What is the work?
This is a brief summary of the work you're going to discuss. We don't need a full plot summary here, just however much we need to understand going into the discussion — it can even be as simple as quoting the summary on the work's page.
Who is the candidate and what have they done?
This is essentially the character's biography — who they are, their story, their goals and methodology, and, preferably (though not required), what happens to the candidate at the end. It does not have to include every single thing they ever do — for some characters, we'd be here all day if that was the case — but it should include the highlights of their journey.
How are they Magnificent?
This is the point where you highlight the character's brilliance. How to they convey their intelligence and charm to the audience? What makes them stand out among the crowd? What are their goals and how do they go about accomplishing them? This part welcomes a lot of creative thinking — not everyone has to be a Machiavellian Diabolical Mastermind to be worth considering here! This is also the time to showcase how the character can think on their feet if it's necessary.
How are they a Bastard? How are they not too bad?
What kinds of moral lines is this character willing to cross for the sake of their goal? Are they willing to let innocents die? Start wars? Commit crimes? The character has to show some kind of unscrupulousness in order to count as a "Bastard". Notably, this character does not necessarily have to be the villain, and an Anti-Hero can cross the line if they're immoral enough, but they have to be immoral somehow.
This is also the section where you then state your case for why they're not too bad. Perhaps their good intentions help mitigate their crimes. Perhaps others are shown to be much worse than them. Perhaps they're prone to Pet the Dog moments or are even fighting on behalf of loved ones. Whatever the case, there are certain lines that an MB can't cross, but as long as their villainy is reasonable for their goal, they can be considered.
Final verdict?
This is where you post your final conclusion on the character in question. You can continue elaborating on your reasons or even just say a simple "yes" or "no"; at this point, we've heard everything we need to hear.
And that's everything you need to know. Welcome to the thread!
Edited by Twiddler on Jan 17th 2024 at 5:40:56 AM
![[tup]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thumbs_up_emote.png "[thumb up]"){kind=small}
for Anastasia Chase.
Anatasia
Okay, it's been a few weeks since I made the proposal for Arana and the reason why I haven't made a write up yet is that I'm running into a block of making an actually good entry, can somebody help write an entry for him please
I’ll take a potato chip… and EAT IT!
Chase
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
I can help make a writeup, but what do you have so far? Because it helps if I have something to go off of.
Got a smaller proposal and one I'm not completely sure on, but I feel he's worth the shot.
A Game Of Turnabouts is an Ace Attorney fan game by Gizmological. Set after the events of Spirit of Justice, it follows Athena Cykes as she and Phoenix are invited to a murder mystery party that, naturally, turns into an actual murder. As the two of them partake in the murder mystery and then solve the actual murder, a dark past behind the people involved shows itself...
My candidate is the party's host, Arkus Strater... as well as the victim of the case.
Arkus Strater is the host of the party who has an agenda behind his actions. See, three years prior to the case, Arkus's daughter Isla died at a party in his mansion, with the identity of her murderer going undiscovered. Strater was distraught at the loss of his beloved daughter and wanted to see justice for his death. Strater knew that it was one of four people was the murderer: Roland Barre, his wife Grace, Connor Iving and Isla's then boyfriend, Ken Forza. Suspecting the former three due to Isla gaining dirt on them from her reporting at the company they worked on (Roland was selling confidential information, Grace was cheating on her soon-to-be husband with Connor, and Connor was embezzling funds from the company), and Forza because he took evidence from the scene of Isla's death that could have implicating him.
To this end, he invited the four most likely suspects to the party to find out who it was, setting up the game to have the exact same people involved and have the same circumstances as Isla's death. In order to make them participate, Strater blackmailed all of them with the info he had on them, threatening to release their secrets to the public if they failed to fulfill their objectives in the murder mystery game. He also deliberately set up Roland and Grace's roles so that only one of them would be able to succeed at their role, guaranteeing that one of them would have their secrets revealed. With the pieces in place, Strater needed someone to find out who the murderer was through his game, so to this end he invited Phoenix Wright to the party with Athena Cykes tagging along.
During the events of the party, Strater is murdered by Grace in order to prevent her infidelity from being revealed. However, through the events of the resulting trial, Athena is able to discover the truth behind Isla's murder as well as Strater's own, fulfilling the mission he had left for her and Phoenix.
Is he magnificent?
Yeah. Strater is a genuinely friendly and charming individual who while obviously haunted by the death of his daughter, is not nearly too broken for this and is able to set up a game in order to find out the truth of her murder which he's able to do flawlessly, getting everything he wants, even if posthumously.
He does die in the process of fulfilling his goal, but I wouldn't consider that a problem, seeing as how Phoenix and Athena still managed to find the truth and fulfill the task he left for them, with his murder trial giving them the circumstances needed to do so.
Is he a bastard?
Admittedly his bastard elements are a bit light, but they're still there. He blackmails four people to partaking in a game of his and threatens to release secrets of theirs if they don't fulfill the tasks he leaves for them, with him deliberately setting things up so that at least one person of the four will not be able to fulfill their tasks. None of them are good people by any means and Roland and Connor are being blackmailed for serious crimes, but Ken and Grace by comparison are being blackmailed for much less severe sins (for the record, no, Ken did not murder Isla. It was Roland.).
This is still obviously nowhere near too bad, especially by Ace Attorney standards, and his love for Isla is ironclad, given his scheme was designed with the entire purpose of getting justice for her death.
Final Verdict?
I think he's a keeper at least. But I'll let you all decide.
"Cool. Coolcoolcool."
Yes to Chase and Arkus.
Would this quote work for the quotes page:
Dean Spreck: Hello Craig.
Dean Pelton: City College…Now I understand everything, now your whole evil plan is clear as day. But if you need to explain it to your men, I understand.
Dean Spreck: It’s simple, Craig. I posed as a fake ice cream company, sponsored your end of the year picnic, and waved enough money under your students’ noses to provoke them to destroy their own campus.
Edited by Bullman on Apr 11th 2024 at 11:34:22 AM
Fan-Preferred Couple cleanup threadThanks to Larry for help writing this
- Kill Chain: "Araña" is a calm, stoic mastermind who worked as a mercenary for Franco and an unnamed organization. Tasked with eliminating a shipment from a rival organization, when they found it full of trafficked children, they decided to free them. After Franco is killed by his organization when seeking revenge for the death of his daughter at the hands of dirty cops, Araña decided to take down the organization himself. Employing Sanchez, he has him betray his partner, before setting him up to be killed by the cops. After Renata, a former prostitute, finds him her, Araña convinces her to talk to her ex-pimp while he poisons her right hand and threatens the pimp at gunpoint. After setting up Renata to kill the pimp, Araña pays a visit to Sanchez's dying partner telling him that even though he didn't kill those girls he didn't stop Sanchez before finishing him off, getting everything he wanted in the end.
Unofficial co-Wiki Curator for Magnificent Bastard
Takechi aka Edo Shibusawa, Arkus
I’ll take a potato chip… and EAT IT!
Arkus and the Spreck quote
Edited by LarryT on Apr 12th 2024 at 5:51:21 AM
In honor of Akira Toriyama
"Cool. Coolcoolcool."
Here is Melody's write up:
- Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire: Melody is a ghost working for Garraka in order to move on and reunite with her family. Befriending Phoebe, Melody fakes a haunting in order to follow Phoebe home and learn about the Ghostbusters containment unit. Melody eventually tricks Phoebe into temporarily turning into a ghost so that Garraka can use her body to say the chant to free him. Using Garraka's invasion as a distraction, Melody sneaks into the Ghostbusters' base to release their captured ghosts, only to be talked down by Phoebe. Legitimately bonding with and befriending Phoebe, Melody later helps Phoebe trap Garraka by lighting her match to aid the Firemaster, before finally moving on and promising to see Phoebe in the "Fabric of the Universe."
I'm cool with the Spreck quote.
And here is Nosferadon and Wolf.
- Titanic Creations: Soul War: The alien kaiju, Nosferadon, and his human companion, Wolfgang "Wolf" Weintraub turn the tides against the Nazis when other kaiju awaken. Nosferadon is soul consuming alien bio weapon created to destroy the monstrous Griffixis, and befriends Wolf, a boy whose parents were taken by the Nazi's. Forming a soul bond, the two cleverly and audaciously dispatch Nazi squads; even feeding a surrendering soldier to Nosferadon. Sieging a camp, Nosferadon attacks a nearby village to draw out the entire unit, while Wolf picks off the stragglers. Learning that his parents were killed, but seeing the greater good they're doing, Wolf and Nosferadon go to intercept Rommel, Griffixis and Skureaus; during which, Wolf personally fights with Rommel, spitting in his face when overpowered. Putting their heads together with Project Serenity, the two help realize how to sever Griffixis' soul link with Skureaus, seeing Nosferadon devour Griffixis' soul, at which point Wolf and Nosferadon refuse to join the Project, becoming fugitives as they set out to continue their quest against the Nazis.
Edited by Beast on Apr 12th 2024 at 7:13:15 AM
"It's like...a cliff, and if I do it, I'm just gonna...fall." "I think we're already falling."
Man in the Yellow Hat
Alright, two weeks have passed since the last episode, and the character by all indication is dead, so she's safe to EP. I'm admittedly not sure on her myself, so let's see where this goes.
What is the work?
Murder Drones is an 3D animated, cosmic horror comedy web series made by Glitch Productions and Liam Vickers. The series revolves around Uzi Doorman, a Worker Drone who's initially trying to fight back against the Disassembly/Murder Drones killing her kind. After that happens in the first episode (which results in Uzi teeming up with a Murder Drone named Serial Designation N and, eventually, another one named V) things quickly take a left turn as an extremely powerful AI named the Absolute Solver begins making moves to take over the planet, and Uzi has to ally with the Disassembly Drones to both face it and other enemies that are in some way connected to the entity. One of those enemies is the subject of today's EP.
Who is Doll and what has she done?
Doll is a Russian speaking Worker Drone that, alongside all other surviving Worker Drones, lives in Outpost 3 and is seemingly a cheerleader. Not much is known about her past besides the fact her mother (who was a test subject at a place named Cabin Fever Labs) and father were killed by V. She first appears in Episode One, laughing at Uzi with her friend Lizzy after Uzi's "railgun" blew up in her face, and briefly trying to help a Worker Drone named Thad up when the Disassembly Drones come. In Episode 2, however, Doll's personality changes, being less emotional and more distant. The episode reveals she has the Absolute Solver and the abilities that come with it (telekinesis, ability to transform objects, teleportation), using it to stop the Solver's J Avatar from massacring the classroom. However, it's hinted that Doll isn't as good a person as she seems when she crushes a robotic cockroach that crawled on her and licks its oil.
Come Episode 3, that hint is confirmed as Doll gets her time to shine as the main villain, with her being introduced cornering a random student in the hallway, twisting the cameras around using the Solver, and then killing her. It's revealed Doll has done this to almost two dozen students-all prom queen candidates. Doll eventually crosses paths with Uzi when her dad forces her to go to prom and gets Doll and Lizzy to prep her. Doll plans to kill Uzi to, but Uzi manages to flee thanks to catching their conversation and the banged up, oil covered mirrors in Doll's bathroom. Despite Uzi fleeing, Doll goes to prom with the plan she had concocted-that being to kill all possible prom queen candidates, get V (who Lizzy befriended) declared Queen by forfeit, and kill V as she's giving the speech. Uzi and N manage to arrive just as the massacre begins, and choose to save V despite their issues with her. Doll manages to quickly get N and V out of the way-but finds she can't kill Uzi with the Solver directly (such as by crushing her with telekinesis). What follows is a fight with Doll trying to utilize whatever objects are in sight to try to kill Uzi and N after he rejoins the battle. After Uzi manages to beat her up petty well, Doll is shot by V in the back of the head and dies...
Or so it seems. Using the Solver to regenerate, Doll teleports back to her house while Uzi, N, and V are investigating all the drones she killed and ate (Absolute Solver infected drones need oil to survive, which is the blood of all drones), pull out the bullet, and shoot Uzi. To Doll's surprise, Uzi's Solver powers activate as well (revealing Doll couldn't kill her with the Solver directly due to Uzi having it to), making Doll feel sorry for her and promise that when she "finds what she's looking for" that she'll help Uzi as well, before teleporting out when V tries to shoot her.
Doll is mostly absent in Episode 4 (which shows why she felt bad for Uzi-overuse of the Solver caused the later to turn into a half biological monstrosity, be possessed by the entity, and eat her classmates), but she does appear to spy on Uzi and N a couple of times in the background (Uzi when she finds a green cockroach named the Keybug and N in a terminal), always teleporting away. In Episode 5, Doll (wearing an eyepatch) shows up back at Outpost 3, breaks into Uzi's room, and begins to fight over the Keybug. Uzi eventually relents when N and V (who the Absolute Solver is trying to memory wipe at that point) begin glitching out, handing the bug to Doll. After telling Khan he raised a good daughter, Doll teleports away to the Camp where the Keybug was found, next to a human named Tessa (who raised all the Disassembly Drones seen in the show) and the Disassembly Drone named J (N's and V's old boss). Doll hands the Keybug and says the deal was for Tessa and J to take them to Cabin Fever labs. Tessa responds by shooting at her, but Doll stops the bullet, with Tessa saying she was just checking before beginning to walk to the lab-only to see Uzi teleported to the lake as well and brought N and V.
Come next episode, it becomes obvious Doll didn't buy Tessa's story, because she snags the Keybug while Tessa and J are talking to the main cast and runs/teleports to the lab with the Solver. She manages to dodge J's and Tessa's attacks using a mix of the Solver powers and skilled acrobatics (implicitly learned when she was a cheerleader) before diving into the giant hole in the ground that leads to Cabin Fever Labs. Tessa exposits that the labs experimented on drones to infect them with the Solver-and which Doll believes was passed down by her mother into her code. Doll isn't seen until the end of the episode- boot looped by the Sentinels that guarded the lab, holding the Keybug. V thinks it's a trap, but when Tessa gets to Doll and nothing happens, the main cast approach. Turns out it was a trap-Doll simply played a gif of a buffering icon. She snags the keybug using the Solver, opens the door to the deepest section of the labs, and then uses the Solver to release all the Sentinels in the lab to die down the main cast, solemnly saluting Uzi before diving down.
In Episode 7, however, Doll's journey ends. It's revealed that Doll was searching for a patch constructed in the lab to cure the Absolute Solver. She finds Tessa blowing up the terminal with a list of the infected Drones, and demands the location of the patch. Tessa, however, manages to fight Doll off and cut her eyepatch of-revealing Doll's solver infection has progressed to the point her visor half cracked. Tessa then, impossibly quickly, disappears, with all the light being snuffed out. Doll, who by that point is incredibly scared of whatever is coming, hears something approaching from deep within the cave and sees that whatever it is, it can't be crushed with the Solver. Doll manages to throw a boulder to it-but the entity uses its own Solver to break it in half and lunges at Doll. A couple minutes later, it's shown Doll somehow survived-at the moment. Despite the fact her ribcage (which grew inside her body thanks to the Solver) is exposed and that she's gushing oil, Doll managed to crawl all the way to Uzi in the lab, displaying a message telling Uzi to fight back. A while later, her still squirming core (a heart like part in all Solver drones that can revive them) is eaten by Tessa (who is revealed to have just been the Absolute Solver puppeteering the real Tessa's corpse)-making Doll definitively dead.
Is she magnificent?
I'd definitely say so. She engineers an excellent plan to lure V to prom and kill her, and it would've worked had Uzi not arrived and had Uzi not possessed the Solver (both of which were reasonable assumptions, since Doll had no reason to suspect she's run to the prom or be infected). In addition, she manages to trick the gang into thinking she's dead, and not only succeeds in tying them down, but manages to seemingly kill V, thus avenging her family. Smaller feats include being able to catch the Keybug, evading Tessa and J, and being able to stay undercover in the colony. In addition, while Doll uses the Absolute Solver, it should be noted that her opponents aren't weak-the Disassembly Drones have dozens of weapons inside their bodies and are able to regenerate from most injuries, while Uzi has the Solver as well. While she never catches onto the fact the Absolute Solver took hold of Tessa until it's to late, the Absolute Solver hid it incredibly well, and she does at least try to warn Uzi after being mortally wounded.
As for magnificence beyond intellect, Doll is meant to be a distinctive villain, being given the unique trait of speaking Russian, one of the best fight scenes in the show, and understandable motivations.
Is she a bastard?
Now, this is where the issue might come in. Doll is undeniably evil-she kills dozens of students who (based on the posters) are barely at adulthood and eats them, in addition to trying to kill the main cast. However, for the most part, her kills are either explained as being done to survive, to make sure her plans work, or, in the case of V, to avenge her parents.
However, in Episode 3, while she's about to kill V, Doll crushes a random worker drone that's running away and pops another, both using the Absolute Solver. This is never explained (the closest explanation for the second might be that he stood in the way) and is the only one of her actions that is needlessly cruel. So she might end up being slightly to heinous due to this.
That being said, this is one of the less needlessly cruel actions in the show-V sadistically killed thousands of drones (including feeding one his internal machinery/entrails as his family watched), the Solver committed enormous amounts of mundicides with little explanation before sicking the Disassembly Drones to exterminate life on even more planets, and Alice tortured and killed up to dozens of Drones inside Cabin Fever Labs. Between all of this, those to brief killings are barely noticeable, and Doll's redeeming qualities (care for her parents and Lizzy, respect for Uzi and Khan, her tragic backstory, etc.) do help.
Any other mitigating factors?
Not really. She does get visible terrified when the Solver/Tessa makes the cave go pitch black and begins running at her, but not only does she stand her ground, but walks to Uzi to warn her afterwards despite being mortally wounded. In addition, her severe mood swings, an instance of broken laughter, and the fact she keeps her parents corpses in her house implies she's severely broken by their deaths, this never hinders her plans, and she is mostly presented as a formidable threat instead of someone irreparably broken. As a final note, while the pilot did have her belittle Uzi with Lizzy, this trait is absent throughout the next six episodes, with Doll being ambivalent at best to Uzi and coming to respect her.
Verdict?
I myself am not sure, but very slightly leaning to a .
Edited by Purgatoryisof2 on Apr 13th 2024 at 2:59:08 PM
He/Him
I’ll take a potato chip… and EAT IT!
for Doll.
"Cool. Coolcoolcool."
Got another proposal here.
The Order of the Stick is a long-running webcomic based off of D&D 3.5e, starring the titular order as they work to stop the evil lich Xykon and his cohorts from taking over the extradimensional being known as the Snarl.
But we're not going to be discussion any of that today, and instead I have a candidate from one of the prequel books, Good Deeds Gone Unpunished, specifically the longest story in the book, How The Paladin Got His Scar. A prequel story starring one the major supporting characters of the comic, O-Chul, it details how he, indeed, got his scar as well as how he came to join the elite Sapphire Guard.
The story's main villain, Commander Gin-Jun, is the furthest thing from a keeper, but one of the story's supporting characters might have a chance.
The unnamed cleric is a hunchbacked resident of the Gorge Ravine Outpost who serves in the court of the Supreme Leader who unlike his leader wants an age of peace for the hobgoblins. Seemingly just a toady who sucks up to the Supreme Leader and the general, he's able to use his words to convince the bloodthirsty general in order to give O-Chul and his cohorts and audience with the Supreme Leader to avoid conflict and further war, since he wants to avoid the war that the Supreme Leader and the general want. It almost works, until Gin-Jun inadvertedly foils it by attacking the outpost.
Much later, after Gin-Jun is killed, O-Chul, Hinjo and Saha tell the Supreme Leader about the truth behind the village being attacked and how they weren't behind it, though the Supreme Leader isn't letting up on his plan to wage war on Azure City and declares his intent to gather his forces to destroy them... before he suddenly dies. And then every other hobgoblin present dies as well, except the cleric, who had poisoned the cheese they were all eating.
See, the cleric had been making himself less threatening for years in order to eventually take over the Gorge Ravine outpost so that he may have the age of peace he desires, the whole incident with O-Chul and Gin-Jun just gave him the perfect chance. He then takes the Supreme Leader's objects that denote leadership and pins the incident on O-Chul and his allies to have them run out of the encampment and allow his scheme to go off without a hitch. And in the end, he is successful as his community massively grows in number while he's the leader, his tenure only ending when he gives the title of Supreme Leader to Redcloak during the events of No Cure for the Paladin Blues.
Is he magnificent?
Yup. His seeming sniveling toadyism is all a front to make himself look less threatening, and even as he's still keeping up the act as he still is able to convince the bloodthirsty general to stand down for a brief time. He's then able to successfully enact his plan to take over the outpost to create his age of peace, which is only interrupted when he gives the mantle of leadership to Redcloak years later.
Is he a bastard?
Barely, but yes. The cleric wants to avoid a war and desires peace for his people... and he is willing to kill his leader as well as the other hobgoblins in the room to avoid the war. The Supreme Leader and general are worth little sympathy, but there is nothing that says that the other hobgoblins in the room are as war-hungry and wanting to destroy the Azurites as they are, especially the one who was just serving them all food. He does also pin the assassination of the prior leader on O-Chul and co., though it's clear that it's not personal and he just needs to fulfill his plan.
Verdict?
A keeper, in my opinion.
Man in the Yellow Hat
to the Hobgoblin Cleric.
Unofficial co-Wiki Curator for Magnificent Bastard
Doll, Hobogoblin Cleric.
"Cool. Coolcoolcool."
Yes to Hobgoblin Cleric.
Fan-Preferred Couple cleanup thread
Jogo
Doll and Hobglobin Cleric
Goku Black
cleric
I’ll take a potato chip… and EAT IT!
Not the Eye
Doll and Cleric
I've added the write-up for the Ish State Experiments guy to the drafts since the proposer made it, but apparently forgot to add it there.
For the record, he would go to Web Video or Let's Play?
Edited by Rhino8888 on Apr 14th 2024 at 8:17:16 PM
